David Abrams's Blog, page 131

Bookstore of the Month: Iconoclast Books Redux

There is joy in Sun Valley this month.  Not only has news reached central Idaho that Hailey's hometown hero Bowe Berghdal has been released after being held prisoner by the Taliban for nearly five years, but it looks like another community icon will be rescued.   The IndieGoGo campaign to help keep Iconoclast Books afloat looks like it will indeed be a "go."  (Crossing my fingers and knocking on wood so as not to jinx the bookstore before it meets its $85,000 goal.)


I've supporte...

Sunday Sentence: Three Years by Anton Chekhov

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.



“Your wife told me once in the summer that I should write a history play, and now I want to write and write; it seems I could just sit for three days and night, without getting up, and keep writing.  Images wear me out, they crowd in my head, and I feel as if my brain is pulsing.  I have no wish at all that something special should come from me, that I should create some great...

Friday Freebie: James Madison by Lynne Cheney

Congratulations to Patricia Mariani, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Cutting Teeth by Julia Fierro.

This week's book giveaway is James Madison: A Life Reconsidered by Lynne Cheney.  The publisher and I have scheduled this contest in time for the winner to receive a copy of the book by Father's Day.  So, if you're still looking for a good gift to give your Dad, why not enter this week's Friday Freebie?  Here's more about the biography from the book jacket copy:

This majestic...

Screen-Staring and Hand Cramps: My Stop on the Writing Process Blog Tour

Today, I'm doing a little bit of navel-gazing here at the blog as I talk about how and why I write the things I do.  Author Kim Barnes invited me to take part in the "My Writing Process" blog tour.  I'm a little late to the party; this meme has been around for at least a year and there must have been thousands of writers who've gone before me; but, nevertheless, here I am, showing up with a bottle of chilled wine and an apologetic/hopeful smile on my face.  The idea of this pas...

Front Porch Books: May 2014 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of books--mainly advance review copies (aka "uncorrected proofs" and "galleys")--I've received from publishers, but also sprinkled with packages from Book Mooch, Amazon and other sources.  Because my dear friends, Mr. FedEx and Mrs. UPS, leave them with a doorbell-and-dash method of delivery, I call them my Front Porch Books.  In this digital age, ARCs are also beamed to the doorstep of my Kindle via NetGalley and Edelweiss.  Note: most of t...

Trailer Park Tuesday: The Bees by Laline Paull

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.



The temptation to pun around with Laline Paull's debut novel is hard to resist--things like, "Buzz is building for The Bees " or "Hive really been looking forward to reading this book!"--but I'll avoid cheap stuff like that.  I wouldn't want to bumble my way through a lame opening to this Trailer Park Tuesday blog post.  It's true, though, The Bees looks like it could...

My First Time: Rachel Weaver

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands.  Today’s guest is Rachel Weaver, author of the novel Point of Direction which Oprah magazine described as a “strikingly vivid debut novel.” Here's what William Haywood Henderson, author of Augusta Locke , had to say about the novel: “A lighthouse on an island off the...

Sunday Sentence: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I’ve read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.




Shallow lull in the dialogue, filled with some landscape.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
(See Also: Across America with Humbert and Lolita )

Across America with Humbert and Lolita

Postcards.  As I stumble, fumble, tumble, bumble, mumble my way through Lolita , and reach the first two chapters of Part Two, my head fills with postcards.  As those of you who have read Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel may recall, these are the chapters where Humbert Humbert and Lolita spend a year ("1947-1948, August to August") criss-crossing the United States, trying to stay one step ahead of the law and its Mann Act (though I don't think H. H. sees it quite that way).

Cover design...

Friday Freebie: Cutting Teeth by Julia Fierro

Congratulations to Jeanne Gassman, winner of last week's Friday Freebie, a trio of short story collections: Stay Up With Me by Tom Barbash, Train Shots by Vanessa Blakeslee, and Songs for the Deaf by John Henry Fleming.

This week's book giveaway is Cutting Teeth , the debut novel by Julia Fierro.  Regular readers of The Quivering Pen have already read about Julia's " first failure ."  Now, you have the chance to win the full fruits of her success.  Cutting Teeth has only been out f...